Delhi Police has said in its chargesheet that Aftab Poonawalla, accused of murdering his live-in partner Shraddha Walker, allegedly shifted her body parts between a refrigerator and a kitchen cabinet whenever the woman he met on a dating app Used to come to his rented house.
Aftab (28) allegedly strangulated 26-year-old Shraddha on May 18 last year and cut her body into several pieces, which he kept in a refrigerator for about three weeks at his Chhatarpur Pahari home and kept it for several days. Till he got them settled. The crime came to light in November 2022 when police interrogated the accused after Shraddha’s father lodged a missing complaint in Mumbai.
Delhi’s Saket court on Tuesday took cognizance of the 6,629-page charge sheet filed by the Delhi Police against Aftab on January 24 and listed the matter for further hearing on February 21.
The charge sheet states that the accused was arrested on November 12 because he could not explain the transactions of Rs 54,000 from Shraddha’s bank account on May 18 and Rs 6,000 from Shraddha’s bank account on June 7.
After killing Shraddha, Aftab came in contact with a woman on Bumble on May 24. They soon became friends and she visited his flat for the first time on 25 May. Aftab also gifts her a silver ring, which he had removed from Shraddha’s body after killing her. This ring was recovered from the woman.
The charge sheet states that the woman used to frequently stay at his residence and used to clean the refrigerator she had bought on May 19. According to the chargesheet, the body was dismembered into 17 pieces, which he stored in a refrigerator purchased on May 19. When the woman used to visit his rented accommodation, he would switch body parts. The charge sheet states that the woman used to frequently stay at his residence and he used to clean the fridge. Delhi Police has said in the charge sheet that once she is gone, it will again keep the body parts in the fridge.
The blood stains found on the upper shelf of the wooden cabinet matched the DNA of Shraddha’s father, Vikas Walker, and the blood recovered from the lower shelf matched that of Aftab and Shraddha.
There was heavy security in the court on Tuesday ahead of the in-camera hearing by Metropolitan Magistrate Aviral Shukla. Police along with dog squad searched the premises and kept the media out.
After strangling Shraddha in the evening, he closed the main door of the house and went to buy a saw, three blades, a hammer and a plastic clip. The same day his wrist was cut and kept in polythene. According to the charge sheet, it was then kept in the lower cabinet of the kitchen.
Over the next four to five days, I cut the dead body into 17 pieces (three pieces (six pieces) of each hand, three pieces (six pieces) of each leg, head, torso, two pieces of pelvis and thumb,” the chargesheet said. Aftab’s disclosure statement has been cited.
He confesses to having lost Shraddha’s phone in the train, he reveals. “I threw her phone, debit and credit cards and documents in Bhayandar Creek [Mumbai] after harming them as I knew it [the creek’s] The depth is there since I did my schooling there,” the charge sheet quoted Aftab as saying.
Shraddha was living with Aftab in fear of being killed by Aftab or getting beaten up badly over trivial matters. Aftab used to beat her mercilessly and sometimes strangled her almost to death. Shraddha had no support system as she was living with Aftab against the wishes of her father and brother. So she was not in touch with her family. The charge sheet states that many times she used to share her sad life with her school friend Lakshmanan Nadar.
It was revealed in the chargesheet that Aftab was trying to make an excuse that Shraddha had left him. “He had already murdered Shraddha and was chatting with a bumble friend using both [Aftab’s and Shraddha’s] Also impersonated the phone and Shraddha. Though he had said that Shraddha had gone out, Shraddha’s phone location was still with Aftab, which is also confirmed by the GPS location of Shraddha’s Bumble account.
Police have attached parallel locations of mobile phones of both Aftab and Shraddha after May 18. As per the chargesheet, they were able to establish that Shraddha’s phone was in Aftab’s possession.
In Delhi, there were several arguments between the two regarding the expenses and Aftab’s wife. The charge sheet states that “he had girlfriends from Delhi to Dubai”.